I'm finding one of the hardest parts of my thesis work is that I'm trying for a photo quality to the images, which means when I get the idea for an image, I can't just draw the bloody thing the way I want it. I have to take photos or find photos and manipulate what I have, and when you're talking about images of zombie hordes or chupacabra, things get tricky pretty quickly.  But it does keep things interesting.





( Full image below cut )

Black on the Yellow and Cyan


Black on the Yellow/Cyan/Magenta


And here's a closeup of the print, since me posting the web images means you're losing the beauty of the halftone dots.

Yellow and Blue (I liked this enough that I kept half that way.)


Yellow, Blue, and Magenta


The black will happen tomorrow, print gods willing.

This will probably show much darker than it is, especially if you're viewing it on a CRT monitor.



If that's the case, then trust me, it looks pretty good in person. And I'm done with the image. Finally.



I'm 3/4 of the way through Beto-Beto-san (see above). Just missing the black layer. After having to burn the bloody black screen three times, I think I've figured out the problem-- I'm underexposing the film emulsion. Though the time is apparently fine for the liquid emulsion. Go fig. I'm a bit annoyed with myself for not having cottoned to this earlier, but I am glad I've (probably) finally worked it out. I really don't mind being in the lab until ten at night when it means I'm getting three or four colours printed at a go.

The Advisor is back Monday, and will want to know what I've been up to since he's been gone. I give a mini-speech at the poster opening Tuesday. I have a paper due for Graphic Narrative on... Friday, I think.

I'll be fine as long as I keep moving.

My meeting with 3/5 of my committee (one of the professors was confused and didn't make it) actually went very well. They seem interested in my concept, like the work, suggested things to look at (looks like I'll be reading more Nietzsche)... The art profs also get along with my WS prof, which is a great relief. There was an interesting undercurrent of "You know your advisor is probably going to have kittens since you're doing screen and that's graphic design here and not printmaking and you're going to have to keep him happy, right?"... but I still have a few more days before he's back and I plan to revel in them. Once he is back I'll arrange a meeting with him and the other missing committee member because then hopefully they'll argue with each other and not just me.

( Avast, thar be pictures )

My advisor is going to be out of town at a conference for the rest of the month.



I've decided that this will be an ideal time to declare a moratorium on doing pieces to keep him happy, since he won't be around to keep offering "suggestions" about my stuff. Because right now I'm feeling like doing these pieces is not actually getting me any further with the work I need to be doing.

(The piece above is based on his fervent belief that my drawings are more interesting than my finished work, so I'm printing a recreated sketch as a screenprint. I think it's cute, I just don't think it's what I'm trying to do right now. He seems to have this fascination with the detritus of my process rather than the results...)

I think I'm starting to get the hang of it.



...and my advisor thought that the stencil was far more interesting than the colour image, so I printed a few of the cyan screen in black.

The vagaries of my schedule are such that the only time I really have to work (or, for that matter, an empty print/screen studio to work in) are nights and weekends. This is translating into a lot of twelve hour days. I wouldn't mind this if I had more to show for it.

( Pictures of my current endeavours )

Screenprinting: 4
Me: 1.5



I did four colour separation, and this is the Y(ellow) and the C(yan). I've realised that there's pretty much no way these are actually going to match each other (because it's both a tough image full of tiny tiny dots that keep filling in and because I'm not that great a screenprinter anyway), but that, hell, since it's a piece *about* madness (among other things) so I should just go with it and see what they all look like when they're done. I'll probably also display them in multiples. So there.

In other news, I met with my advisor today, since we hadn't yet met this semester. It looks like for some arcane reason that I certainly don't think is complete and utter bull, I will have to add two members to my committee. I've already emailed one of the potential victims, and I'll talk to the other one next chance I get. I should see him Friday, anyway. During our mandatory all-day safety training session.

I was nervous about showing/telling him what I was working on, but he seemed okay with it. He also told me that he liked my sketches better than anything else I was doing, and that they lose something when translated into final images, and I should just draw directly on some plates, complete with asides and scribbles and notes and stuff.

...not totally sure just yet where I should go with that.

However, in *completely awesome* news, I may have found a venue for Weird New Mexico 2: The Revenge, which I want to have in October of this year. It will be like the last one. Only bigger. And awesomer. And more published. And, of course, weirder.

Some of you may have noticed that while the semester's been going on for a couple of weeks now, I haven't posted any art since the Fireflies card.

Some of you who are my mom may be wondering about that.

I actually am working on art at the moment, it's just not going well.

I've come up with an idea for a new body of work that (if my committee likes it) will maybe even carry me through my thesis.

I spent today in the lab trying to make some progress, but the printing gods were not with me this day. I'm screenprinting again, and the image in the screen kept clogging. Maybe it'll be partially covered up by subsequent layers, but unless I can figure out what's causing it, I run the risk of the exact same thing happening in the subsequent layers.

I was also doing the first hardground etch on a plate. While testing the acid, I found out it was really really hot (ie, highly acidic. The high heat and low moisture here mean that the water in the acid is constantly evaporating, making the acid stronger over time). It took the copper off a penny in less than five minutes. That, being way too hot, meant I needed to water it down. So I watered it down. Apparently I watered it down enough that it went from being able to eat a penny to taking hours upon hours to etch hard ground. I had it in there over an hour with no progress, I'll pretty much need to leave it in for another few hours next time I'm in there to see if that does anything.

So after eight odd hours in the lab, I'm left with a plate that's exactly the same as when I started and twenty sheets of a bad print. At that point I decided to call it a day.

I will now drown my frustration in more episodes of Mushishi.

In case anyone was curious, I thought I'd post some of my inspiration for the "AkaAka-A" piece I just finished.


This is Aggie ("A") Mountain, owned by New Mexico State University and visible from campus (and my apartment)

+
Daimonji in Kyoto, lit up for Obon

+
Mt Fuji in a Summer Storm by Hokusai

+
"A" Mountain on one of the random nights when it is lit up (last night)

=

My take on it all.

I've decided that this piece is done, partially as an aesthetic choice and partially due to the faint whiff of mold that tells me I should dry them all out and quit leaving them damp for days (an important part of the moku hanga process)



I don't know if I like it yet or not. But it was definitely an interesting piece to play around on.

And finally, this is what my monotype for the Weird New Mexico show looks like:



My inspiration was the various fascinating theories about the causes of the mysterious lights of Marfa, TX. Bioluminescent jackalopes won hands down, even over the ghost of Adolf Hitler.

It's actually a mixed media piece, two layers of monotype and then gouache on top 'cause I ran short on time.

Y'know how I've joked for years that my lifestyle puts me at heavy risk for tendonitis?

...yeah.

The past few days of heavier than usual carving and printing may have pushed my right arm over the edge. I wish I could give it a few days off, but hey, I'm in grad school. So I'll give it next Monday and Wednesday off 'cause we have critique anyhow, and in the meantime when I'm home I'm strapping ice packs to my forearm with the bandages I usually use for cosplaying ninja.

And now, a picture of my cats. Note how Pellinore is quite literally a black shape with eyes.

There's a certain order to making stuff. Unfortunately, even when you're trying to juggle several things at once, you can still end up with a lot of hurry up, wait around.

I stayed home a few days ago, to focus on beating the drawings I had into shape so they could be transferred onto key blocks, which could then be carved and printed and transferred onto more blocks which could then also be carved and printed and in between and along with these steps are all sorts of decision making things that sometimes drive me nuts.



Two of the drawings are now on key blocks, as can be seen above. One is mostly carved, the other is all carved, but both are waiting until a friend of mine can locate and loan me his kento nomi so I can carve the all-important registration marks. I really need to get myself one of my own. Only they're expensive and stuff.

One of the key blocks (top left) is being carved out of 3/8" all-shina plywood, which is high grade Japanese wood that's quite a bit nicer than the birch ply I usually use. No knots, smooth grain, no layers of pine, less glue... It's too expensive to use all the time, at least at this point in my career, but it does improve the level of detail I can manage, which is of course very important for a key block. The other block is being carved on the back of one of the blocks of "Self Portrait as Daruma with Cats."

I have a third print idea halfway through the drawing stages, and am considering flocking portions of it once it's done so that they'll be fuzzy. This means I'll need to learn about flocking and buy supplies for it and all that good stuff.

It is good, at least, to be making progress on some art. I know reviews will be on me before I can blink.

Last night also marked my first night volunteering for the Obama Campaign. The work itself is thankless, the people very nice. I don't know if anything I'm doing actually makes a difference, but at this point I feel like I can either try to do something, or just feel frustrated all the time. (Now I'm doing something *and* frustrated all the time.)

And now, a picture of my adorable little links to sanity.

Weird New Mexico: The Slideshow


I still don't have closeups of two of the pieces, and the image of mine is horrid, but this should give you an idea of what the show looked like.

Also, I finished the hanga. Finally. And now it has pterodactyls.

The article is in a legitimate newspaper! It's well-written! I don't sound like a moron!

New Mexico Show Celebrates State's Quirks

And I printed a darker terra cotta today.